Halt and Catch Fire (2014)

Halt and Catch Fire is Mad Men meets Steve Jobs (any one of a half-dozen films), with a theme song ripped off from The IT Crowd (but improved). I finished the final episode of Season 2 on April 1 (via streaming, since that season is not yet available on DVD), and I look forward to the greenlighted Season 3. First of all, the show’s explanation of the term “halt and catch fire” is mythical; as a machine language operator, HCF was a wry in-joke, appearing on a list of dozens of other terms such as “fire photon torpedoes” and “halt until after lunch.” Second of all, the monomaniacal visionary character may be a bit more psycho than Jobs ever was. (Jobs could be more devious and emotionally destructive, but I doubt he was a pyromaniac with control issues over flat-chested female hackers and had sex with even men to manipulate them. While it is true that being placed for adoption was a motivation to prove himself to the world at large, Jobs greatly respected his adoptive father, who served as a character and product quality touchstone throughout his life.) This series is most captivating in the first season, when the brainstorm that has morphed into a paradigm-shifting start-up company, and then an EDS-like corporate division with a good-old-boy CEO, is working to reverse-engineer and then be first to market with an IBM PC clone (before it sees a Macintosh prototype). The second season revolves around the development of a woman-owned alt/rebel online community that cannot decide whether games or chat rooms (community) are its raison-d’être, but it is just not as exciting (in a business, engineering, or psychotic sense). Because of my career path, I would not miss an episode of this series, although I find a raft of other shows more suspenseful and gripping. 4.5 stars. (4-27-2016)